About the Book

The integration of popular culture into education is a pervasive theme at all educational levels and in all subject areas. Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Teacher Education explores how ‘popular culture’ and ‘education’ come together and interact in research and practice from an interdisciplinary perspective. The international case studies in this edited volume address issues related to:

how popular culture ‘teaches’ our students and what they learn from it outside the classroom

how popular culture connects education to students’ lives

how teachers ‘use’ popular culture in educational settings

how far teachers should shape what students learn from engagement with popular culture in school

how teacher educators can help teachers integrate popular culture into their teaching

Providing vivid accounts of students, teachers and teacher educators, and drawing out the pedagogical implications of their work, this book will appeal to teachers and teacher educators who are searching for practical answers to the questions that the integration of popular culture into education poses for their work.

Reviews

This is an important book that challenges established thinking with regard to the relationship between culture and education. The chapters outline an array of innovative pedagogies and creative approaches to teaching that draw on popular culture and they offer critical reflections on practice that are underpinned by rigorous attention to theory. The collection is global in scope, highlighting the way in which issues relating to children and young people’s use of digital technologies and media culture are relevant across cultures. A must-read for teachers, students, academics and policy makers interested in ensuring that pedagogy and curricula are appropriate for the 21st century. – Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK

Table of Contents

1. Popular Culture in Informal and Formal Education Part 1: Popular Culture Outside the Classroom 2. Popular Culture: How Does It Teach and How Do We Learn 3. Millennial Kids in Hong Kong: Lifeworlds and Popular Culture 4. Understanding Digital Games as Educational Technologies: Capitalizing on Popular Culture Part 2: Popular Culture in the Classroom 5. Media Concepts and Cultures: Progressing Learning from and for Everyday Life 6. Using Social Media in Popular Culture Education: a Comparative Study 7. Popular Pedagogical Assemblages in the Health Education Classroom 8. Football for All, Organic Living, and MK Culture: Teaching Popular Culture by Turning Theory into Practice 9. Tradition Empowering the Cutting Edge: Inspiring Students by Fusing Music from around the World with Popular Culture Part 3. Popular Culture And Teacher Education 10. The (re-)Making of Media Educators: Teacher Identities in Changing Times 11. Designing an Engaging English Language Arts Curriculum for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Students: Capitalizing on Popular Cultural Resources 12. Graphic Novels in the EFL Classroom? German Teachers’ Perspectives 13. Negotiating Task, Text and New Literacies in Online Comic Strips 14. Digital Literacy and Teacher Education

About the Editors

Phil Benson is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, and Director of the Centre for Popular Culture in the Humanities at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Alice Chik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at City University of Hong Kong.

About the Series

This series aims to present the latest research from right across the field of education. It is not confined to any particular area or school of thought and seeks to provide coverage of a broad range of topics, theories and issues from around the world.